IMPD underscores importance of conversations with community when solving crimes

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Mayor Joe Hogsett, City-County Councillor Keith Graves, IMPD officers and other city leaders walked the streets around Dubarry Park on Indy’s east side Wednesday as part of the mayor’s monthly public safety walks.

“This was an opportunity to come out, engage with the community in a way that we don’t normally get to and in a way that the mayor does not normally get to,” Commander Craig McCartt said. McCartt leads IMPD’s east district.

These public safety walks build a connection from the public to the police. They hope it helps them solve more crime, especially after the city endured 72 homicides so far in 2019. That’s slightly down from the numbers at this point last year.

“We are doing better than at this time last year, but that does not mean that we’re resting on our laurels. In fact, even though we have fewer homicides, even though the violent crime rate has gone down, even though the number of aggravated assaults this year are fewer than at this point last year, we’re not declaring victory because one homicide, frankly, is unacceptable,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said.

Hogsett hosts these walks in a different neighborhood in Indy each month.